Thursday, May 07, 2009

Speaking of politicians(and their dirty little minions) who need the application of a whipping post

in the town square, two cases Insty pointed to. First, in California,Tomorrow I will be arguing the case of Griswold v. City of Carlsbad in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California. This is an astonishing case in which city officials forced the Griswold family to give up their constitutionally protected right to vote in exchange for a building permit. Hard as that might be to believe, it is actually not unique: it's actually quite common for local governments to abuse permits by forcing property owners to give up money or land or other rights.This is... 'disgusting' isn't the word, but it's close. Any politician and/or bureaucrat playing at this should be removed from office. And prosecuted, if at all possible.

Second, from Illinois(somehow not surprising), "Along a party line vote, the Quincy City Council denied a written request to speak by a taxpaying resident of the city.

Steve McQueen, one of the organizers of the Quincy Tea Party effort, requested to speak on the recently approved $31.2 million budget and water and sewer rate increases.

When it came time to vote to open the floor to allow the speaker, a mixed voice vote took place. A roll call vote ensued and the seven Democrats denied McQueen's opportunity to speak while six Republicans voted to allow him to speak.

Alderman Mike Rein (R-5th Ward) was absent.

Alderman Mike Farha (R-4th Ward) said he had never seen anyone denied the right to speak in his 10 years on the council and called the vote "outrageous.""Response from the mayor?Quincy Mayor John Spring says he has no regrets about a City Council vote which denied a taxpaying citizen to opportunity to speak before the city's governing body on Monday night.

Spring appeared on WGEM-FM (105.1) during NewsTalk Drive, hosted by Les Sachs on Tuesday afternoon. Sachs asked about Monday night's meeting and Spring said the events made him 'sad'.

"The main focus of the meeting was supposed to have been a very special night for those council members, mayor and other elected officials who were there to be sworn in to serve...," said Spring, who is the mayor. "Unfortunately, that got a little overshadowed as I noticed in the coverage. Today, there wasn't much said about that...so that's sad. That's a very sad thing in my mind that Quincy deserved better than that."To borrow from Tam, "Ooooh, who's a sad clown?""I didn't think that was appropriate...for that group from that standpoint to come and basically disrupt that ceremony," Spring said.

McQueen had about 40 supporters at City Hall, who did nothing to disrupt any ceremony, which Spring admitted in the interview.(bold mine)

Gee, I think the tea party and people speaking out kind of bother this little roach, don't they?

And last, the Justice Department, if it wants that name to be anything other than a joke, needs a serious housecleaning:It appears John Yoo cannot be disciplined or disbarred for writing those memos, even if the Office of Professional Responsibility says it has evidence he should be.

That’s because OPR’s five-year investigation—carefully timed for release only as Bush was leaving the White House and Obama was coming in—dragged on too long. As a result of that timing, OPR blew the deadline for referring possible misconduct allegations against Yoo.

John Yoo is admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania. But the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board, which would investigate any complaints against him, imposes a four-year limitation for complaints.

Yoo wrote the memos in 2002 and 2003. This is 2009. You do the math....

This is a huge issue for current DOJ officials and Attorney General Eric Holder. Because if Yoo—who wrote the memos and has been vilified as responsible for approving the interrogation program—can’t be disciplined under state bar rules, why then would OPR even refer the matter to state bar officials in the first place?

And what about Bybee? Now a federal appeals court judge, Bybee is admitted in DC and Nevada—those jurisdictions don’t have comparable limitations periods. But how strange would it be to only refer Bybee, when his involvement largely amounted making a few edits and signing Yoo’s legal work?

2 comments:

The governhackspitcoughvomitment wants people to sit down, shut the hell up, and do as they're told. The sad thing about that is there are some people who would do just that. The awesome part about that is I don't know anyone like that.

Also, the govern...oh, sh*t gonna get sick again, ment thinks they are above any actions that might be taken against them. After all, they shouldn't have to follow the rules set for everyone else, right? I mean, let's face it, they are the government...and people in government see no evil, hear no evil, speak tons of it.

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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.